GIGANTIC CEPHALOPOPS. 79 



club of the tentacle, nearly 3 feet in length, is occupied in the 

 centre of the palm by two rows of large stalked suckers, nearly 

 1 inch in diameter, fourteen in each row ; an alternating row of 

 fourteen smaller suckers (J in. diam ) occupies the margin on 

 each side of the palm ; these outer suckers had each a denticu- 

 lated bony ring of about twenty-eight teeth, pointing inwards 

 (the rings of the large inner suckers had probably been removed 

 or fallen out before the specimens were examined). Just beneath 

 where the large suckers end, there is a cluster of very small ones 

 arranged closely in six transverse rows, and the extremity of the 

 club has also a great number of small suckers, whilst a few nearly 

 sessile ones are scattered on the inner surface of the peduncle. 

 Most of these had no denticulations on the rings. The beak has 

 a wide, strong tooth about the middle of the edge of the upper 

 mandible, and a much narrower notch on the outer mandible, on 

 each side. These specimens are now in the Museum of the Royal 

 Society, at Dublin. 



In a collection of rare tracts relating to Irish history which 

 was formed by a London bookseller named Thomas Thorpe, and 

 is now deposited in the library of the Royal Dublin Society, 

 there is a most curious record of the occurrence of an enormous 

 cuttle-fish. The first three letters and the description are all 

 printed, together with a rude drawing, upon the same side of one 

 broad sheet, "printed in London for Francis Smith, at the 

 Elephant and Castle near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill." The 

 fourth letter is in manuscript, and the second broadsheet or 

 advertisement was evidently printed in Dublin, so as to be dis- 

 tributed in the form of a handbill. 



The drawing represents a cuttle-fish with broad ovate body 

 covered by a loosely-folded mantle. A pointed extremity, or 

 tail, with what appears like the two lobes of a fin, is shown as 

 projecting beyond the mantle. The head bears two enormous 

 eyes, and above them rise on each side the eight short arms, each 

 bearing two rows of suckers along their entire length. In the 

 centre are seen the two longer arms or tentacles, which are 

 drawn as thick as the rest, and are quite bare and smooth, with 

 no suckers, tapering outwards into a point, as if the club, or 

 expanded portion, had been torn off. But the most extraordinary 



